Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Second Life: Better Off Dead?
Congress last week held some ill-informed and meaningless hearings, and not about steroids in baseball. Congress wasted nearly as many hours of productivity as the NCAA tournament in investigating if terrorists could infiltrate the virtual world Second Life.
As
Wired's Danger Room points out, the money exchanged in SL are in very small amounts, and if some jihadist were to take up residence, the community would know and report on those activities quickly.
The only issue that should be investigated in Second Life is about taxing the profits of virtual money. People are supposed to pay sales tax and declare their revenue, but so far SL is immune.
Now IBM is "enhancing" the Second Life experience for corporate customers so that avatars can attend meetings and interact instead of people. I can't wait for the lawsuits if avatars are deemed to be sexist or discriminatory.
I see the value in virtual meetings, but technology from Cisco that allows real-time video and voice communication and document collaboration is more productive. Spending thousands of dollars to create an island for team members to feel relaxed when they meet virtually is a big waste of money.
Virtual worlds have been in development for decades, and while they can provide some entertainment, they are not for business. I would expect that the media and business corporations will vote themselves off their island and focus on more serious tasks as the economy worsens.
Posted By John Gartner at 09:24 AM
Permanent Link: Second Life: Better Off Dead?
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(2) Comments on Second Life: Better Off Dead?
"People are supposed to pay sales tax and declare their revenue, but so far SL is immune."
"immune"? "sales" tax? Really??? Last I checked, people making "real" money from Second Life activities *were* paying taxes. Not on or with Second Life's fake Linden currency of course; probably safe to assume the U.S. Treasury, at least, wouldn't accept Linden dollars (tho maybe with the U.S. dollar falling in value they'll consider it in the near future). And the issue here isn't collecting "sales" tax revenue because inside a *private* corporate virtual world there is no recognizable economic exchange. You may as well demand corporations pay "sales tax" on files they exchange amongst themselves via their intranet. It's nonsensical.
However, the exchange from Linden dollars to U.S. dollars which Linden Lab facilitates *is* a traceable exchange and no different than any real world economic transaction. And since Linden Lab takes out a transaction fee, you can be sure they maintain ledgers which can be reviewed by the IRS or any other country's authorities, as necessary.
U.S. citizens who acquire legitimate currency (i.e. U.S. dollars) via the exchange of the fake currency are, by law, required to report this taxable income just like people who accept tips. Whether someone complies or not is an issue between the government and the individual.
Comments by csven : Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Fact is only a handful of people actually make alot of money in sl and most of them have a corporation now to handle the money as a corporate earnings. Those in other countries are paying taxes too.
There is very few people making much money in second life most of it is only a few dollars to a couple hundred dollars a month..
non subject really at this point
Comments by Trevor Cao : Friday, April 18, 2008 at 01:00 PM
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